Why is My Refrigerator Ice Maker Not Working?

Renew Appliance Repair offers refrigerator repair in Bowie, including professional services to repair broken ice makers. Learn about common ice maker issues below:

Refrigerator ice makers are possibly one of the best inventions ever. This is a small luxury most people might take for granted. Refrigerator ice makers are simple machines that do not have a lot of complex components that can go wrong with them.

As with any repair, there are some basic things that need to be reviewed before assuming the worst. And, remember, if needed, you can replace your ice maker without replacing the entire refrigerator, dependent on the brand and model. First, let’s review some of the causes for an ice maker failure.

When your ice maker is making ice but it is not ejecting the ice cubes it is usually a mechanical failure vs. an electrical problem. This can happen when reorganizing food around in the freezer, you could accidentally jam the control arm up or down. Most of the time the ice maker can be jammed with something else, even another chunk of ice. So, check to see if there’s ice or food blocking this part from operating properly.

Before starting the steps of clearing out the freezer, ensure your ice maker is turned on. This is done by flipping the control arm in the down position. From time to time, moving things around in the freezer unit may put it in the off position. If the control arm is free, then there could be something jammed inside of the ice maker or it is not getting a good connection.

Check the Control Arm

If the switch is down and there is ice but it’s not ejecting it, there could be a mechanical or electrical problem. This will need a bit more diagnosing. Ready to begin? First, we must check the electrical connection. This could become unplugged from the back of the freezer or refrigerator when shifting or moving the food in the freezer.

To inspect this, first unplug the refrigerator and slide it out away from the wall. Turn off the water supply. Locate the valve on the back of the inside of the freezer. Basically this is what plugs the ice maker into the freezer unit. Be sure that it’s plugged in the right way.

Next, remove all of the ice that’s in the ice maker. This can be done by pouring in a little water to help get the ice that’s inside of there out.

Once this is done, restore power to the refrigerator and then turn on the ice maker. It might take the solenoid component a couple of seconds to engage and fill the mold. Once the mold is 100% full, wait around 4-5 hours or so to see if you’ve cleared the problem.

Check for Frozen Lines

More ice maker problems that might cause your ice maker to not produce ice are frozen water lines. The water lines have been clogged with frost. This is an easy issue to fix.

Unplug the freezer and find the water shut off valve. Shut the water off and grab a hair dryer to warm the line or let the freezer sit shut off for a few hours and wait until the water line is thawed.

There are some models that have a water filter that can clog or ice over. In these situations, locating the water filter is the first step. Then repeat the same process that was done for the frozen line.

When an ice maker isn’t making big enough cubes of ice, there is an issue with the settings. To adjust the settings, take the upper part of the cover of the ice maker off and locate a standard control that has plus and a minus symbols. For this process, you might need a flat head screwdriver.

ADDITIONAL REFRIGERATOR RESOURCES

• Refrigerator Noisy
• Refrigerator Water Dispenser Not Working
• Refrigerator Not Cooling
• How Does a Refrigerator Work?